Dominique Charpin

Dominique Charpin (born 12 June 1954, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French Assyriologist, professor at the Collège de France, and corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, specialized in the "Old-Babylonian" period. Born on 12 June 1954 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Charpin was in high school when a trip to Turkey and a stay in Syria and Lebanon in the following year determined his vocation. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1971, he pursued his studies in history, and more specifically chose to study epigraphy rather than archaeology, but learned these two subjects, and began to practice them during excavations in Iraq. He passed the agrégation of history in 1976, a doctoral dissertation in 1979 on the subject of Archives familiales et propriété privée en Babylonie ancienne, and his doctorate thesis on Le Clergé d'Ur au siècle d'Hammu-rabi in 1984, under the direction of Paul Garelli. He participates in excavations and studies at the Larsa site in Iraq, and the Mari sites tell Mohammed Diyab in Syria. As an assistant at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University from 1976, Charpin integrates the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1985 as research fellow, then returned to Paris 1 in 1988 as a teacher. At the same time, he was also the director of studies cumulating to the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE) in "History and civilization of ancient Babylonia" from 1994 to 2005. Charpin later became the director of studies for 8 years from 2005 until 2013. Mesopotamia constitutes his main focus particularly towards the old Babylonian period or "amorrite"; it is the great era of Mesopotamian civilization, with Hammurabi on which he signed the first book in French in 2003. A correspondent of the Académie des inscriptions et beaux-lettres since 30 March 2012, Dominique Charpin was appointed professor at the Collège de France, holder of the chair "Mesopotamian civilization" from 1 January 2014.